method-for-obtaining-primary-ovarian-cancer-cells-from-solid-specimens

Method for Obtaining Primary Ovarian Cancer Cells From Solid Specimens

Reliable tools for investigating ovarian cancer initiation and progression are urgently needed. While the use of ovarian cancer cell lines remains a ...

University of Minnesota

Breast cancer metastasis to bone is frequently accompanied by pain. What remains unclear is why this pain tends to become more severe and difficult to control with disease progression. Here we test the hypothesis that with disease progression, sensory nerve fibers that innervate the breast cancer bearing bone undergo a pathological sprouting and reorganization, which in other nonmalignant pathologies has been shown to generate and maintain chronic pain. Injection of human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231-BO) into the femoral intramedullary space of female athymic nude mice induces sprouting of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP(+)) sensory nerve fibers. Nearly all CGRP(+) nerve fibers that undergo sprouting also coexpress tropomyosin receptor kinase A (TrkA(+)) and growth-associated protein-43 (GAP43(+)). This ectopic sprouting occurs in periosteal sensory nerve fibers that are in close proximity to breast cancer cells, tumor-associated stromal cells, and remodeled cortical bone. Therapeutic treatment with an antibody that sequesters nerve growth factor (NGF), administered when the pain and bone remodeling were first observed, blocks this ectopic sprouting and attenuates cancer pain. The present data suggest that the breast cancer cells and tumor-associated stromal cells express and release NGF, which drives bone pain and the pathological reorganization of nearby CGRP(+)/TrkA(+)/GAP43(+) sensory nerve fibers.

Breast cancer-induced bone remodeling, skeletal pain, and sprouting of sensory nerve fibers.

Many forms of arthritis are accompanied by significant chronic joint pain. This study was undertaken to investigate whether there is significant sprouting of sensory and sympathetic nerve fibers in the painful arthritic knee joint and whether nerve growth factor (NGF) drives this pathologic reorganization.

Article	Year
Breast cancer-induced bone remodeling, skeletal pain, and sprouting of sensory nerve fibers. The journal of pain : official journal of the American Pain Society\| PubMed ID: 21497141	2011
Neuroplasticity of sensory and sympathetic nerve fibers in a mouse model of a painful arthritic joint. Arthritis and rheumatism\| PubMed ID: 22246649	2012

Kathleen A. Coughlin

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